Stuck in boot-up screen.

My Droid Eris is stuck on the boot up screen [droids skating].
I googled the problem and every one else with the same problem says that they just installed a rom or something.
I haven't installed anything recently on my phone.
My battery had been low, so when I hit the power button to view my phone, I was presented with the boot-up screen.
Thinking it had died, I plugged it in and left it only to find that it would not load past the same screen.

I have taken the battery out and replaced it multiple times to no avail.

I would really appreciate some help, but I don't want to end up having to wipe my phone. [Although I heard that wiping the phone only deletes any apps and doesn't wipe out any photos, contacts, etc, which is what I don't want to lose]

In fact, I can't bring up my phone on my computer at all.
[I think my phone is automatically on charge only :/ My computer identifies it, I just can't bring up the device itself]
Is there a method of rooting where I can use my SD card?

In fact, I can't bring up my phone on my computer at all.
[I think my phone is automatically on charge only :/ My computer identifies it, I just can't bring up the device itself]
Is there a method of rooting where I can use my SD card?

Click to expand...

That's good, because the unRevoked method is not a good method for the eris.

Will a hard reset delete absolutely everything, like photos and contacts?
If not I will do that, but completely wiping my phone is my last resort.

I would like to root if I can to avoid wiping everything, but as I said I don't think I will be able to since I can't open my phone on my computer.

Click to expand...

Photos are stored on your SD card, and a hard reset does not erase anything on the SD card.

There are two sorts of contacts on the Eris - Google contacts and Phone contacts. Google contacts are synced with your Google account and will resync after a hard reset. Phone contacts, however, are stored only on the phone and will be lost after a hard reset.

Ok, that's too bad. It would have been easier to root with a working phone.

Let's start with this: can you tell me the HBOOT version number? When you start the phone from power down while holding VolDn, it starts in HBOOT, and the version is in the second line. It should be either 1.46.0000, 1.47.0000, or 1.49.0000.

By the way, power down the phone ASAP after finding this out. HBOOT drains the battery pretty quickly.

"Eris_RootROM_v2.19.605.1_PB00IMG.zip" from shipped-roms.com. Note that this (also) is renamed to PB00IMG.zip at the appropriate time. **

A custom (dev) ROM, or even a fully stock ROM such as the HTC Eris March 2011 OTA Stock ROM - v2.41.605.6

Installation Method:

Note:

A less thorough method than what is described here, but shorter, is reported here. Even though I built the "ErisMTDNuke_v0.9.zip" repair tool, I do not advocate using it unless it is confirmed to be absolutely necessary. Moreover, in almost every case, having the Eris S-OFF bootloader on a rooted phone is an advantage, and (also) having the "misc" partition "MainVer" value reset back to a low value after fooling with RUUs or PB00IMG.zip installs is a good idea to prevent future disasters. The short method does not document either of these two steps.

Note #2: In any of these procedures, it is important to do so with A FULLY CHARGED PHONE. Do not let the phone sit idle for long periods of time in HBOOT, FASTBOOT, or RUU modes - even with the Eris plugged in to a USB port, in those modes it will discharge very rapidly - about two hours or so. That little green light is your friend.

- get fastboot on a PC working and communicating with the phone in its' current state (with the phone in fastboot mode or RUU mode). Doubtful if I will reply to inquiries about Windows and driver installs - it's covered in gory detail all over the place. Same goes with getting a copy of "fastboot.exe" for windows. (Google is your friend).

- Install the "rom.zip" file for the 1.51.0000 bootloader, (Rename to PB00IMG.zip and install it by booting the phone into HBOOT mode**)

- register with htcdev.com for unlocking this new Eris bootloader & follow the bootloader unlocking instructions (you can skip downloading & running the RUU, as you have installed the bootloader already)

- create a zip file with a custom recovery image in it (named "recovery.img"), and an "android-info.txt" file with MainVer set to 2.42.0000 (see step #3 of this XDA post).

- using fastboot and the phone in RUU mode, flash this zip file ("fastboot flash zip zipfilename.zip") Again, see step #3 of the link above.

- power off the phone and boot into the custom recovery and flash the ErisMiscReset_v0.9.zip file (watch for any errors - stop if you see errors!).

- in the same recovery session flash the MTD_Inspect_v0.9.zip file and determine if you have massive (bad block) corruption in any of /boot, /system, or /data. (See instructions here)

- If the above mentioned partitions only have one or two bad blocks, skip the next step.

- Flash the Eris Root ROM (from shipped-roms.com), using the HBOOT+PB00IMG.zip install method. The objective of this step is primarily to get rid of the 1.51.0000 bootloader, and install the 1.49.2000 S-OFF bootloader. Note this will stomp on your custom recovery (unless you use the battery pull trick), but that's OK.**

- get the custom recovery back onto the phone - using either the standard Eris rooting tools (Dummies or One-Click), or simply flash it using fastboot (e.g. "fastboot flash recovery recovery-RA-eris-v1.6.2.img")

- one last time: in the custom recovery, flash the ErisMiscReset_v0.9.zip file

- Install a ROM and be happy.

** after using any PB00IMG.zip file, it is a really good idea to rename it ASAP, so that you don't accidentally re-install it by inadvertently powering up the phone in HBOOT mode.

bftb0

Click to expand...

If you have any questions about this, ask away. It looks daunting, as there are a lot of drudge-looking steps, but it's better to ask first than get stuck in the middle.

As listed early in those steps, make sure that the battery is well-charged.

Yes, and you have a choice with this. The instruction above is to rename that rom.zip file to the name PB00IMG.zip (that's letter p letter b zero zero letter i letter m letter g period letter z letter i letter p), copy that file to your SD card, and then restart the phone in HBOOT.

However, you may have a problem: how do you get that file to your SD card without a booting phone? You can do it if you have an external SD card reader (so, take the SD out of your phone, put it in the reader, copy the file over, remove the SD card drive safely from the computer, put the SD card back in the phone, and - whew! - restart the phone in HBOOT.

Luckily, there is another way, and it's in that thread that I linked to above.